Top Resume Resources for Young Professionals

For many of you, this will be your first resume. Compile a list of the internships, part-time jobs, research projects, and work/study experience you have had. Now focus on the achievements with each (not the job responsibilities) and you have the essence of what to include on your resume. Are you fluent in a language? Did you receive awards in high school or college? Are you an athlete whose team reached the States? Do you have any certifications of skills? Have you published a blog, been included as an author on a research paper, contributed to the school’s newspaper? Don’t forget your volunteer efforts with your church, Girl Scouts, school, etc. Combine this with your academic achievements, including partial credit toward a degree, and you are on your way. For a comprehensive list on how to craft a great resume, this is a winner.

Now comes the packaging. Purzueoffers a terrific multi-media approach, enabling you to give prospective employers a great introduction to YOU! Their software imports your LinkedIn profile and walks you through the content and structure to quickly craft a strong-looking resume and the app enables you to send it directly to an employer from the site.

Be sure and include keywords in your resume that tie to the words in a specific job listing. Advanced Tracking Software (ATS) is generally used to sort resumes before human eyes encounter it. If the software doesn’t find the keywords, your resume will probably never be seen. To help identify the keywords, try copying and pasting a job description into TagCrowd. This will give you a visual key as to which words are most often repeated and may be keywords! Another resource to see how you stack up relative to a specific job listing is Resunate.com. Their software analyzes your resume and assigns a score to give you a sense of how well you will do after the tracking software is applied.

Last and most importantly, proofread several times and share your resume with others for another round of proofreading. Typos and grammatical errors are probably the biggest single reason that a candidate is refused and it is completely avoidable.